What was the significance of the turner thesis

Frederick Jackson Turner 1861-1932 "The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward explain American development. Turner was born in Portage, Wisconsin, in 1861. His father, a journalist by trade and local historian by avocation, piqued Turner's interest in history.

After his graduation from the University of Wisconsin in 1884, Turner decided to become a professional historian, and received his Ph. He served as a teacher and scholar at the University of Wisconsin from 1889 to 1910, when he joined Harvard's faculty.

Why was Frederick Jackson Turner important?

He retired in 1924 but continued his research until his death in 1932. Turner's contribution to American history was to argue that the frontier past best explained the distinctive history of the United States.

Cooperation and communities of various sorts, not isolated individuals, made possible the absorption of the West into the United States;

After his graduation from the University of Wisconsin in 1884, Turner decided to become a professional historian, and received his Ph;

The frontier made Americans rugged individualists who always had a new space to conquer outside of the confines of civilization.

He most cogently articulated this idea in "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," which he first delivered to a gathering of historians in 1893 at Chicago, then the site of the World's Columbian Exposition, an enormous fair to mark the four-hundredth anniversary of Columbus' voyage. Although almost totally ignored at the time, Turner's lecture eventually gained such wide distribution and influence that a contemporary scholar has called it "the single most influential piece of writing in the history of American history.

Census Bureau had announced the disappearance of a contiguous frontier line. Turner took this "closing of the frontier" as an opportunity to reflect upon the influence it had exercised. He argued that the frontier had meant that every American generation returned "to primitive conditions on a continually advancing frontier line.

His thesis "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" mournfully proclaimed that the once vast American western frontier was closed.

Turner's essay reached triumphalist heights in his belief that the promotion of individualistic democracy was the most important effect of the frontier.

In 1893, Turner spoke at the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition, where millions of Americans had flocked to Chicago for this 1893 multi-month event to experience displays of new technologies, new products, and new tastes. This development, in Turner's description of the frontier, "begins with the Indian and the hunter; it goes on with the disintegration of savagery by the entrance of the trader...

He retired in 1924 but continued his research until his death in 1932.

In the pavilions and halls of the Exposition, the electric light bulb, the moveable sidewalk, the Ferris wheel, diet carbonated soda, and Cream of Wheat were a few of the many exciting things unveiled. The frontier made Americans rugged individualists who always had a new space to conquer outside of the confines of civilization.

This development, in Turner's description of the frontier, "begins with the Indian and the hunter; it goes on with the disintegration of savagery by the entrance of the trader. Turner's essay reached triumphalist heights in his belief that the promotion of individualistic democracy was the most important effect of the frontier.

Individuals, forced to rely on their own wits and strength, he believed, were simply too scornful of rank to be amenable to the exercise of centralized political power.

The Significance of the Frontier in American History

Turner offered his frontier thesis as both an analysis of the past and a warning about the future. If the frontier had been so essential to the development of American culture and democracy, then what would befall them as the frontier closed? It was on this forboding note that he closed his address: His critics have denied everything from his basic assumptions to the small details of his argument.

The mainstream of the profession has long since discarded Turner's assumption that the frontier is the key to American history as a whole; they point instead to the critical influence of such factors as slavery and the Civil War, immigration, and the development of industrial capitalism.

But even within Western and frontier history, a growing body of historians has contested Turner's approach. Some have long disputed the very idea of a frontier of "free land. The numerous Indian wars provoked by American expansion belie Turner's argument that the American "free land" frontier was a sharp contrast with European nations' borders with other states. On a more analytic level, an increasing number of Western historians have found the very concept of a frontier dubious, because it applies to too many disparate places and times to be useful.

She argues that his context and upbringing led him to ignore the female portion of society, which directly led to the frontier becoming an exclusively male phenomenon;

Limerick pushes for a continuation of study within the historical and social atmosphere of the American West , which she believes did not end in 1890, but rather continues on to this very day;

Turner held that the American character was decisively shaped by conditions on the frontier, in particular the abundance of free land, the settling of which engendered such traits as self-reliance, individualism , inventiveness, restless energy, mobility, materialism, and optimism;

Turner took this "closing of the frontier" as an opportunity to reflect upon the influence it had exercised;

Western historians who still adhere roughly to Turner's approach accuse their opponents of mistaking a simple-minded political correctness for good scholarship in their quest to recount only the doom and gloom of the Western past.

How much do Puritan New England and the California of the transcontinental railroad really have in common? Many such critics have sought to replace the idea of a moving frontier with the idea of the West as a distinctive region, much like the American South. Where Turner told the triumphalist story of the frontier's promotion of a distinctly American democracy, many of his critics have argued that precisely the opposite was the case.

Cooperation and communities of various sorts, not isolated individuals, made possible the absorption of the West into the United States. Most migrant wagon trains, for example, were composed of extended kinship networks. Moreover, as the 19th century wore on, the role of the federal government and large corporations grew increasingly important.

Many such critics have sought to replace the idea of a moving frontier with the idea of the West as a distinctive region, much like the American South;

He most cogently articulated this idea in "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," which he first delivered to a gathering of historians in 1893 at Chicago, then the site of the World's Columbian Exposition, an enormous fair to mark the four-hundredth anniversary of Columbus' voyage;

The more foreboding and cautionary tale which increasing numbers of Western historians have offered in place of Turner's account has provoked sharp controversy;

While the earliest settlers were European in social structure and outlook, as Americans moved west in successive waves—to the Appalachians and onward—the frontier shaped and changed the American mindset to be different from that of the European;

He served as a teacher and scholar at the University of Wisconsin from 1889 to 1910, when he joined Harvard's faculty.

Corporate investors headquartered in New York laid the railroads; government troops defeated Indian nations who refused to get out of the way of manifest destiny; even the cowboys, enshrined in popular mythology as rugged loners, were generally low-level employees of sometimes foreign-owned cattle corporations.

Moreover, these revisionist scholars argue, for many places the West has not been the land of freedom and opportunity that both Turnerian history and popular mythology would have us believe. For many women, Asians, Mexicans who suddenly found themselves residents of the United States, and, of course, Indians, the West was no promised land. The more foreboding and cautionary tale which increasing numbers of Western historians have offered in place of Turner's account has provoked sharp controversy.

Western historians who still adhere roughly to Turner's approach accuse their opponents of mistaking a simple-minded political correctness for good scholarship in their quest to recount only the doom and gloom of the Western past.

Often the rhetoric reaches an acrimonious crescendo. But in a sense, the very acrimony of these debates takes us full circle back to Turner and his legacy, for debates about the significance of Western history are hardly ever confined to the past.

In our understanding of what we are as a nation, if on no other level, the Western past continues to define us today.